There Came a Leper

There Came a Leper July 12, 2020

Mark 1:40 – 45

We are living in the year 2020. It’s hard to believe we are already a fifth of the way through the 21st century! Yet even in this so-called enlightened age, people are still treating one another terribly. Minorities still have to face discrimination from members of the larger population. Bigotry still exists. Even worse, people who are disfigured in some way or sick are often shunned in fear.

Mark 1:40 – 45

When we come face to face with things that frighten or disgust us, our first instinct is often to flee, rather than to face the situation and deal with it. While this is a natural reaction, it is terrible when we are frightened or disgusted by other human beings who are not threatening us. As children of God, when we find ourselves facing people who are the outcasts of society, do we have compassion as Jesus did toward us, or do we turn away in disgust?

I. Leprosy

  1. Leprosy is a Medical Condition:
    Few animals can catch leprosy and the means of transmission is unknown. The mycobacterium which causes leprosy replicates very slowly because of its very specific needs. This leads to a slowly developing disease but also prevents researchers from creating cultures in the lab. The body’s attempt to fight the infection leads to extensive tissue destruction and thus mutilation which gives the appearance of rot.     – About.com

    1. Leprosy (Easton’s Revised Bible Dictionary)

      1. (Heb. tsara’ath, a “smiting,” a “stroke,” because the disease was regarded as a direct providential infliction). This name is from the Greek lepra, by which the Greek physicians designated the disease from its scaliness. We have the description of the disease, as well as the regulations connected with it, in Leviticus 13 and Numbers 12.

      2. Lepers were required to live outside the camp or city… This disease “begins with specks on the eyelids and on the palms, gradually spreading over the body, bleaching the hair white wherever they appear, crusting the affected parts with white scales, and causing terrible sores and swellings. From the skin the disease eats inward to the bones, rotting the whole body piecemeal.” “In Christ’s day no leper could live in a walled town, though he might in an open village. But wherever he was he was required to have his outer garment rent as a sign of deep grief, to go bareheaded, and to cover his beard with his mantle, as if in lamentation at his own virtual death. He had further to warn passers-by to keep away from him, by calling out, ‘Unclean! unclean!’ nor could he speak to any one, or receive or return a salutation, since in the East this involves an embrace.” That the disease was not contagious is evident from the regulations regarding it #Le 13:12,13,36 2Ki 5:1 Leprosy was “the outward and visible sign of the innermost spiritual corruption; a meet emblem in its small beginnings, its gradual spread, its internal disfigurement, its dissolution little by little of the whole body, of that which corrupts, degrades, and defiles man’s inner nature, and renders him unmeet to enter the presence of a pure and holy God” (Maclear’s Handbook O.T). Our Lord cured lepers. This divine power so manifested illustrates his gracious dealings with men in curing the leprosy of the soul, the fatal taint of sin.

II. There came a leper to him v 40

  1. This man sought out Jesus – he came to Jesus

    1. he came particularly – he wasn’t looking for just any man, but for Jesus, himself

    2. he knew that Jesus loved him – for a leper to come to an Orthodox Jewish man at that time was a sure way to be rejected and perhaps even stoned – lepers were not to even speak to anyone other than to warn those around them that they were “unclean.” It is the great love of God in Christ Jesus that draws us to him in the first place. “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” 1John 4:10

    3. This man was quite certain that he could come to Jesus, because Jesus showed his love to all in everything that he did. As God’s children by faith in Jesus Christ, we are to abide and continue in him (1 John 2:24), to be like him, to love as he loves, so that the world can see that deep, deep love of God that is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39)

    4. he came to Jesus when Jesus wasn’t surrounded by people, because he realized he was unclean and abhorrent – he knew he needed Jesus!! We cannot be saved until we realize that we are filthy, sick and disgusting with sin and in need of a Saviour! We must ALWAYS remember that sin is utterly disgusting to God, yet he willingly died for us!

  2. He came beseeching him

    1. urgently imploring – not simply asking a quick favour, but earnestly pleading

      1. pray earnestly – “… The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” James 5:16

  3. He knelt down before him

    1. he humbled himself before the Son of God

      1. we cannot come proudly to Jesus Christ; pride separates a person from God “Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” Luke 18:10 – 14

      2. this man humbled himself before the Saviour:

III. If it’s Your Will

  1. This man believed that Jesus could heal him – he had real faith

    1. At the same time, he was not presumptuous as so many are, today, who tell God what to do, rather than saying, “If it’s your will…”

    2. A leper, an outcast, came to Jesus, believing and earnestly, fervently asking him, saying, “If you will, you can make me well.”

IV Jesus was Moved

  1. Jesus had great compassion for this man – God cares for human beings!

    1. compassion is defined as a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.

      1. He was moved with compassion; his desire to alleviate the suffering of this leper moved him – he had a strong desire to alleviate the suffering

      2. Jesus Christ was moved with such great compassion for humanity that he died for us before we even recognized we had a problem; “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” Romans 5:6 While we were still dead in our sins, an enemy of God, Jesus Christ had such compassion on us that he died for us in our place.

  2. Jesus Christ reached out his hand to the leper, this untouchable outcast

    1. Jesus Christ reached out to us, before we ever reached to him. “Remember me, O LORD, with the favour that thou bearest unto thy people: O visit me with thy salvation;” Psalm 106:4 We could not reach up to him, so he reached down to us!

    2. He touched this man, a man who came to him as a leper, unclean, untouchable

      1. God the Son, absolutely clean and holy, touched this man. Jesus, who did no sin, touched this man, an act that made him unclean under the law, unless the man was no longer unclean.

    3. He saith unto him, “I will; be thou clean.”

      1. Notice this: God willed it, and it was so

      2. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

        1. It is God’s will that we be clean; all disease and corruption in this world is a result of the filth of man’s sin

        2. it is God’s will that all be cleansed and that none remain unclean; it is only because of our rebellious will that any of us stay unclean. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us–ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9

Jesus Christ came that through him, the world might be saved. “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17 He died for us, even though we were spiritually every bit as disgusting as the leper was physically and worse. Jesus died for ALL, no matter how great their sin, and no matter how disgusting they are in a society that loves the beautiful and hates the outcasts. If we shun the outcasts, like everyone else, then we are shunning the very ones that Jesus came to save, including ourselves! God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34) and neither can we be as his children! Next time we walk on the other side of the street or avert our eyes or try in any way to ignore that dirty, stinking bum with his soiled clothes, sores and hand held out for spare change, we need to stop and remember that Jesus Christ saw us as just as needy, dirty and ugly, yet he died for us, anyway. Let us also show the same compassion as we abide in him if we are truly his.